Increased CO2 Makes Planet Greener

Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial society have driven a huge growth in trees and other plants, a new study has found.

18:24 26 April 2016

According to a new study, increased CO2 emission is actually benefiting the planet as it has led to a huge growth in trees and other plants. It added that if extra green leaves prompted by rising C02 levels were laid in the carpet, it would cover twice the continental USA.

 

However, researchers warned that the fertilization effect diminishes over time and that the positive effects of C02 are likely to be outweigh by the negatives.

 

Prof Ranga Myneni from Boston University, the lead author of the study, said that the additional trees would not compensate for rising sea levels, global warming, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, the loss of Arctic sea ice, and the prediction of more severe tropical storms.

 

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change, is entitled Greening of the Earth and its Drivers. It looked into data from the Modis and AVHRR instruments, which have been carried on American satellites for the past 33 years. The sensors show significant greening of the Earth’s vegetated land that slows down the pace of climate change.

 

Co-author Dr Philippe Ciais, from the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences in Gif-sur‑Yvette, France (also an IPCC author), said: "The fallacy of the contrarian argument is two-fold. First, the many negative aspects of climate change are not acknowledged.

 

"Second, studies have shown that plants acclimatise to rising CO2 concentration and the fertilisation effect diminishes over time." Future growth is also limited by other factors, such as lack of water or nutrients.